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“We Have A Starting QB In Josh Freeman”

April 26th, 2013

Following the end of the fourth and final round for the second day of the NFL draft, Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik and coach Greg Schiano did their best to tell Bucs fans, and indirectly, perhaps Josh Freeman, that no, the team did not select a quarterback in the third round to groom as the next Bucs starting quarterback.

“We have a starting quarterback in Josh Freeman,” Schiano said.

Yes, for now. The facts are too glaring to simply dismiss as a coincidence. Freeman, who was drafted on the strong advise of a coach since fired, has not yet developed into a steady, consistent NFL quarterback after 3 1/2 years as the Bucs starter. And rather than locking up Freeman for the future, the Bucs decided to roll the dice and let Freeman enter the final year of his contract for the 2013 season, even though the team had major leverage on Freeman in that he will have few if any suitors if he doesn’t advance further as a quarterback.

And then the team drafts a quarterback, North Carolina State’s Mike Glennon, in the third round?

Dominik and Schiano were insistent the draft of Glennon is nothing more than competition and depth. Dominik was adamant Glennon would have been drafted even if Freeman was not entering a contract season.

“Competition and quality depth across our roster is critical for us to be a championship team,” Schiano said. “That applies to every position. It will make us a better football team.”

Will it? The Bucs are dangerously thin up front defensively. Joe knows the Bucs want depth at linebacker. Yet they pick a quarterback who will, if all goes well, just stand on the sidelines and offer encouragement, just because the team had Glennon ranked atop their draft board?

Would the Bucs have drafted a safety instead of Glennon if a safety graded out higher than Glennon, or an offensive guard? Or a running back?

“We talked about this since the end of last season, it’s a chance to increase the competition for everybody, to bring the best of everybody,” Dominik said. “We thought it was a good fit in the third round. A good fit for what we can do offensively, in this system.”

“God forbid if something should happen to Josh you want to be able to continue with your offensive philosophy as best you can,” Schiano said.

To be fair, Joe will admit drafting Glennon is a safety net if Freeman decides leaves the squad for whatever reason in January. While perception may not be reality, in this case, the perception sure seems like the Bucs are at least a litte concerned Freeman can lead the Bucs to January games.

43 Responses to ““We Have A Starting QB In Josh Freeman””

Freeman would be a fool to leave tampa if the bucs offer him a contract. He won’t have the tools he has now on almost any other team, and the team that have those tools won’t want him. He will just expose himself more if he leaves.

This is more a statement about Orlovsky than it is about Freeman. Freeman is light years ahead of Glennon at this point, and he had a legitimate first round grade coming out of college. Glennon had a third round grade. You can’t compare the two, and the truth is you may never be able to. This is more about having a starting-caliber backup than about honestly believing that he can unseat Freeman anytime in the forseeable future. That simply isn’t happening.

Glennon is simply what Ryan Mallett is to Tom Brady. A guy who can step in if necessary without having to change the offense one bit, but who is never going to unseat the incumbent in open competition.

What pisses me off is the run on tackles that happened after we chose a QB. We had bigger need at DT and LB than QB. Doesn’t matter if you have a capable backup if you never make it into the playoffs because of a porous defense!

this was a surprise pick 2 me. totally unexpected as we could have had him in tha 4th and filled another position need with tha pick. Lemonier de from Auburn, Armstead ot from Arkansas-Pine Bluff who ran a 4.71 40 comes 2 mind along with a few others. Hopefully day 3 is better

The pick is part of the Revis deal. They will trade Glennon for Tebow. That will create such confusion, that they will forget to take their 2nd rounder from us next year. Tebow will be traded to Dallas and goofy Jones will give up a defensive stud.

I dont think you would buy a diamond ring and say i have no intention of marrying that girl, are you serious. This is an insurance policy, Competition sometimes means changes, its ok. If we are worried about our precious Qb freaking out becauses he has competition, then we need to move on.

Joe, the bucs need depth everywhere. Josh’s mission does not change. Its to lead this team. If he does, then Glennon is a cheap back up QB that has many flaws but would benefit from two to three years of seasoning. If he develops and has a chance to show his worth due to injury down the line, then the bucs have a nice trading chip. As Shiano said, Josh is the starter. His mission has not changed.

How many of you would love to see Orlovsky play if Josh was injured? Not many. I would much rather see Glennon over Orlovsky if there was an injury. Good pick. That’s all that is. Depth is depth and Dominick said he was going to play this draft like that. He is looking for depth in “all” places.

so does every QB in this draft. theres a reason why all those other QBs have fallen into the 4th round and beyond. all Im saying is that this pick has the potential to be a really good one. only time will tell.

one thing we know about the bucs is that if they really like a player they are going to take him regardless of what round we are in and regardless if anyone considers it a reach or not. if that player turns out to be a good, like the bucs think he will, then it wont be considered a reach.

Some of you dummies don’t realize how good we have it with freeman. Glennon seems to be good for competition. This builds trust amongst the players to show that you are making the QB fight for his place as much as the 3rd receiver or anyone else. I still would have preferred a DT or OLB but we have a good chance to still add a piece. Our team got way better in the last few months, week, hours. Should get even better from here.

This was an intelligent- but expensive pick.
If Josh has a great year( he will), he sits down at the table, with all the leverage. The Bucs had no one they could claim to be a potential starter. Josh could have really leveraged a huge contract at that point.

Drafting Glennon allows the Bucs to prevent a ” Romo” type contract. The cowboys had no backup plan if Romo left- and he knew it. He raped them

Dom built his hand for negociations with Freeman. A very important detail in modern contract discussions. Had to do it.

And hopefully this young QB will develop into a capable player.

A need, but expensive. Because we really needed to draft a DT or TE at that spot!

Drafting a clone of Freeman when the team has several other critical needs sounds like a desperate move by Schiano-Dominik. Not only will it cause a QB controversy, but the DBs that the team worked so hard to collect will be much less effective with a broken DL.

I don’t understand why people are calling Glennon a Freeman clone at all. Just because he has a big arm and some accuracy issues? First off, the guy’s accuracy issues aren’t as bad as his comp % indicates, due to the fact that his receivers dropped some 40+ passes last season. Second, the guy can actually read a defense (something Freeman has yet to prove, and even the first QB taken this year is terrible at). I’m in the boat with those who think Free was better than people give him credit for, outside of 3 games. However, I like the pick as a solid insurance policy and competition. Obviously the front office thought our need was bigger at QB than DT and TE (the latter I never saw us addressing in this draft anyway). There’s a reason they’re running the team and we’re not.

THIS IS ABOUT SAVING MONEY ON FREEMAN’S NEXT CONTRACT. We now have a backup and Freeman will know it when we go into negotiations with him. I fully expect Freeman to perform well. We just don’t want to pay him megabucks after the Revis deal.
I think this was a good move but I agree that we may have been able to wait a round for Glennon. Obviously we were worried we wouldn’t get him if we did. I am sure we knew another team was interested and we didn’t want to have to trade up to get him in the next round or the end of the third.

For all you haters, scenario: Bucs 9-6 down the stretch and Free gets hurt by some massive lineman and might make it back by the playoffs, if you make it. Do you think Orlovsky gets you there? Really! Great pick for insurance and if Free leaves! No brainer because you have no QB under contract after this season unless Free does well and is rewarded. If that happens you may have trade bait in Glennon. Go Bucs !

What they meant to say is “We have a starting QB in Josh Freeman… but he sucks. So we drafted Glennon because he was the best player available. Which is how you’re supposed to draft. And he’s a pro ready QB that won’t need 3 and a half years of prep, superstars at every offensive position, and tons of excuses to succeed. He had a real QB coach in college who’s had success putting QBs into the NFL before. And the best part is that this was not endorse by Raheem Morris.”

I know you were joking around, but I hope you know that the conditional pick we gave for Revis is a 3rd round pick, at best.

Got nothing against Glennon, but was surprised they pulled the QB trigger that early. Still & all, if both he and Freeman develop as we all hope (who doesen’t see room for both QB’s to improve?) then Glennon will have some trade value. If not, we’ll keep the better of the 2, simple as that.

Glennon is not a Freeman clone. Glennon has 2 degrees and had a 3.8 gpa. I don’t know anything about Freeman’s gpa or degree in college. I do know that your QB and C should be 2 of the smartest guys on your team as they are the ones who make the adjustments on the fly. It looks like Glennon is smart enough to make those decisions.

Remember when the headsets went out in Dallas last year and Freeman decided a running play was the best play suited for 3rd down and the clock running out. That play will always be in the back of my head and was the ultimate what were you thinking moment for Freeman.

You brought up the only major positive to take away with this pick. The kid is obviously smart. If I’m not mistaken, Josh was drafted as a Junior so he hasn’t even completed his degrees while this kid was a starting QB while going for his Masters. That’s a hefty workload to take on!

We shall see…. personally, I wish we had taken another position of need. Not sense in crying over it now though. The deed is done.

I love this pick and I respect everyone analysis but the truth is Dominik and Schiano know what they are doing. None of us are experts in this field so sit back and enjoy our team getting better. The Bucs will and DL and OL depth today and in FA remember June cuts will be here sooner than later. SLB is not a critical piece and STs can be had anywhere.

I like FLboy assessment in that this is solid depth with starter potential.

Can one of you whiners complaining about how bad Dominik botched this pick please point out a single pro-bowler on that list of 3rds we’ve taken?

Zuttah & Foster have been the only capable starters to come out of that group of 14 picks; Dwight smith I guess could be consider a minor success. So what does this show us the 3rd round unless you get EXTREMELY lucky is a crap shoot and mainly focuses on depth. For all of you screaming about depth; why would QB depth be any different then any other position. I’d point that it’s even more important to have QB depth as it’s the agreed upon most important position in football. Freeman is our starter; Glennon can hopefully be a capable back-up who can be relied on in a pinch or for a week or two if freeman sustains an injury mid-year but can return. Those freaking out on here about the pick are just clowns.

This is a kid with an arm and a brain. He will play in preseason then disappear behind a clipboard and learn until he’s needed. Were we not going to have to look at a backup at some point like every other position? I think the Bucs see in this kid a guy with physical tools who can pick up the system, put his toes on the line, and is as good as any QB in this draft. Totally okay with this pick.